Yea, I dont remember what I was taught about that, but I think it was that that war was a total ****** for all involved and that the only reason canada might have won was that the american president said he'd take over canada in a week or something like that.

Uhhhh, no... Canada (or the British I guess) actually took land from the United States after a failed pre-emptive strike from them. It was given back in the treaty signed at the end that pretty much said, if you don't **** with us again, we won't burn your big house down and give you back what we are currently occupying.

It's a total cock up of egos mostly. Some Canadians believe that we had our foot on the president's throat, when in reality we just retaliated in a way that showed we could handle ourselves and we weren't going to be a pushover nation. Some Americans believe that the Canada burnt down the white house, and that the war of 1812 was in retaliation to it and the treaty was Canada pleading for forgiveness. In reality the US attacked because they were afraid the British occupying Canada were mounting up for an assault. Citizens got pissed off because those who died in the first assault were civilians in the militia (who the british used as canon fodder) and retaliated with what can be defined as guerrilla tactics and gained a minuscule amount of land to show that we meant business.